He was one of the last true greats of Hollywood's Golden Age whose epic career saw him win great accolades for his acting and court huge controversy over his political campaigning.

He was one of the last true greats of Hollywood's Golden Age whose epic career saw him win great accolades for his acting and court huge controversy over his political campaigning.

Few stars have been responsible for as many iconic movie moments as Charlton Heston, who died on Saturday aged 84.

Moses parting the Red Sea and the chariot race in Ben-Hur, which won him an Oscar, helped make him world famous for more than half a century.

But his life away from the big screen was rarely short of drama, with his later years dogged by controversy over his enthusiastic leadership of the American gun lobby.

Movie fans, though, will remember his portrayal of legendary Spanish hero El Cid, or his incredible John the Baptist. He may have lacked the natural, effortless talent of Marlon Brando or Steve McQueen, but he made up for it with his powerful presence.

Heston himself said: "I have lived such a wonderful life. I've lived enough for two people. I've played three presidents, three saints and two geniuses - and that's probably enough for any man."

His family announced he had died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, with wife Lydia at his side.

The cause of death has not been released, but in 2002 the actor confirmed he had symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's disease.

His family said: "We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father and a gentle grandfather with an infectious sense of humour. He served these far greater roles with tremendous faith, courage and dignity. He loved deeply, and he was deeply loved."

His former publicist Michael Levine, who worked with Heston for 20 years, said the actor's passing represented the end of an era for cinema.

"If Hollywood had a Mount Rushmore, Heston's face would be on it. He was a heroic figure that I don't think exists to the same degree in Hollywood today."

John Charlton Carter was born on October 4, 1923 in Evanston, Illinois - later creating his screen name by pairing his mother's maiden name, Charlton, with his stepfather's surname, Heston.

He grew up in rural Michigan and made his acting debut as Santa Claus in a school play at age 5. But he was a shy child, one of just 13 students attending a one-room school, he had few friends and would read books or wander the countryside with his rifle.

He described himself as a nerd when he was a child, "before the word had even been invented - shy, skinny, short, pimply and ill-dressed".

When his family moved to suburban Chicago when he was 10, he became more involved in school, playing American football and acting in plays, where his talent was rewarded with a scholarship to study drama at nearby Northwestern University.

He also claimed that breaking his nose playing football was a great help, as it gave him a more rugged face. "It's been a vast asset," he said.

There was a Second World War stint as a gunner in the Army Air Corps, and in 1944 he married fellow Northwestern drama student Lydia Clarke.

Their marriage lasted the 64 years until his death and they had two children, Fraser Clarke and Holly Ann, and three grandchildren.

After leaving the military, Charlton headed to Broadway with his wife, where for a while he paid the bills by doing nude modelling between jobs.

He made his debut in Antony And Cleopatra, and also appeared on the small screen in TV versions of Macbeth, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

But an astonishing stroke of luck transformed his life. Driving out of the studio one day, he waved at Cecil B DeMille. The legendary director liked the wave, asked who he was and signed him to play the circus manager in The Greatest Show On Earth. The film won the Oscar for best picture in 1952 and led Heston to the role of Moses in DeMille's The Ten Commandments, which also won Oscar for best picture.

With his muscular build, handsome face and deep voice, Heston was perfect for the historical and biblical epics Hollywood was churning out in the 50s and 60s. "I have a face that belongs in another century," he often remarked. In 1959 he starred in Ben-Hur, and spent five weeks learning to drive a team of four white horses for the chariot race scene - still one of the greatest action sequences ever filmed.

The role won him best actor Oscar in 1959.

Heston turned to science fiction in the late 1960s, in three films that became classics - The Planet Of The Apes in1968, The Omega Man in 1971 and Soylent Green two years later. He acknowledged his fame owed much to the iconic roles he played. He said: "The shadow of these guys kind of rubs off a little bit, and has left me with a kind of iconic identity which I don't deserve."

The man often cast as a biblical hero also spent much of his life preaching.

Early in his career, he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to publicly speak out against racism, and marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

He also opposed the Vietnam War and supported gun control laws. He won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Jean Hersholt Award in 1977 for his humanitarian work.

Frank Sinatra once quipped: "That guy Heston has to watch it. If he's not careful, he'll get actors a good name."

By the 1980s, however, he had switched from Democrat to Republican, campaigned for Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W Bush and became a prominent gun enthusiast.

One of his last appearances on screen was at the end of Michael Moore's 2002 documentary Bowling For Columbine.

Heston, then president of the National Rifle Association, walked away from an interview while Moore held up a photo of a six-year-old gun victim.

It also showed Heston's speech to the NRA convention in 2000, the year after the Columbine massacre.

Holding a rifle above his head, he declared: "I have only five words for you: From my cold, dead hands."

After going into remission following a bout with prostate cancer, he issued a statement in August 2002 acknowledging that he had symptoms of Alzheimer's.

It said: "For an actor, there is no greater loss than the loss of his audience.

I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage of my life.

"If you see a little less spring to my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for a second time, please laugh anyway."

CHUCK WAS A MAVERICK OF HOLLYWOOD

By David Edwards Mirror Movie Critic

Charlton Heston oozed the kind of rough, macho appeal that most of today's actors can only dream of. His star appeal was eclipsed in the last 20 years of his life thanks to his outspoken right-wing politics and a series of disastrous career moves, not least a stint in woeful Eighties soap opera, The Colbys.

But there was much, much more to the man than his staunch advocacy of gun rights and vacuous soap operas. For a taste of his star appeal, you only need to look at the trilogy of epics he made his own - The Ten Commandments, El Cid and Ben-Hur. The latter won him his only Oscar but he could have lifted the gong for all three.

The films were high-watermarks in Heston's career and he never matched them.

Yet the star, who friends called Chuck, was not just an icon in the truest sense of the word but a maverick unafraid to speak his mind.